Football: Ipswich suffers first defeat at hands of Amesbury

By Dom Nicastro/Correspondent

Friday

Oct 12, 2018 at 11:08 AMOct 12, 2018 at 11:08 AM

Sometimes the best lessons learned are the ones after defeats. The Ipswich High School football team suffered its first loss of the season last Friday night when it fell to Amesbury, 20-14. The Tigers dropped to 4-1, ending their four-game winning streak to start the season.

The Tigers were coming off a string of three games in which they held opponents to single-digit points. But Amesbury was a different story, and the lessons were certainly learned, starting with the coach himself.

"I take full blame for that one," Ipswich coach Kevin Fessette said of the loss to Amesbury. "I got lazy in holding us accountable for the small little things that were going wrong throughout the week. And I'll take full blame on that one."

It wasn’t as if Fessette didn’t think Amesbury came to play. They did. In fact, the Indians have been doing it all season. They sit on top of the Division 5 North playoff seedings at 4-1, ahead of 4-1 Swampscott.

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"They obviously did an amazing job coming out there with their game plan and they put it to us," Fessette said. "And we deserved to lose. It all started back with me. I let the little things go. We just have a very unique team with just four seniors and unfortunately we're just very young. It’s just a matter of when those guys are going to get ready and that's my fault. I need to get them ready faster."

Ipswich, meanwhile, dropped to fourth in Division 6 North behind Bishop Fenwick (third), Hamilton-Wenham (second) and defending champion and undefeated Stoneham (first). The top eight teams out of 13 in the division make the playoffs.

Against Amesbury, the Tigers fell behind, 20-0. Ben Yanakakis scored two touchdowns, and Izzy Morrissey had an interception.

As much as the team learned lessons against Amesbury, Fessette and Co. have turned their attention to this week. The Tigers play their first of two final regular-season games when they travel to Lynnfield Friday, Oct. 12 (7 p.m.).

"We’re moving onto Lynnfield just the same as if we were to win the Amesbury game," Fessette said. "It’s a huge game. It’s a league game, and I can't remember the last time Ipswich has even been in a game with Lynnfield. They've been kind of blowouts. But we’re not that good yet. We’re not winning games by 56 points. We haven’t blown out teams. We’re still trying to figure out who we are and establish what we're doing so the very next two games we have to come out and bring our A game."

As for areas for improvement, it’s all about getting more game experience for his young crew, Fessette said.

"It’s just the youth part of it and getting the young kids to grow," Fessette said. "We have freshmen, seven or eight other sophomores on that defense and it’s getting them to play fast and flexible and do the right thing. And when you practice it, it's hard to simulate a game. So this game experience is really going to pay down the road. But now we don't want to wait to be good. That's the truth. And so we told them no, we're not waiting for them to be juniors and seniors to kind of grow up. We're going to force them to be good now, hopefully, and play hard."